100 days of kindergarten prompts school’s big food donation

For more than decade, Lawrence School students have collected items for food pantry

Published
5:06 pm EST, Thursday, February 19, 2015

Longtime school nurse Kathy Ellis joins three kindergarten classes that gathered 100 cans of food this month for those in need. The students also challenged other classes in the school to do the same.

Longtime school nurse Kathy Ellis joins three kindergarten classes that gathered 100 cans of food this month for those in need. The students also challenged other classes in the school to do the same.

Photo: Courtesy Lawrence Elementary School

Photo: Courtesy Lawrence Elementary School

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Longtime school nurse Kathy Ellis joins three kindergarten classes that gathered 100 cans of food this month for those in need. The students also challenged other classes in the school to do the same.

Longtime school nurse Kathy Ellis joins three kindergarten classes that gathered 100 cans of food this month for those in need. The students also challenged other classes in the school to do the same.

Photo: Courtesy Lawrence Elementary School

100 days of kindergarten prompts school’s big food donation

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MIDDLETOWN >> After a decade of donations, students from Lawrence Elementary School have contributed more food to Amazing Grace Food Pantry than any other school or organization in the region.

This month, the school added a whopping 700-pound collection, likely its biggest to date.

This is according to longtime school nurse Kathy Ellis, the organizer of the monthly food drive.

The drive got its start when a family turned to Ellis for help with a one-time community service project.

“I thought a monthly drive would be great,” said Ellis, so she took up the project mantle, sending monthly reminders about collection dates. The day might get tied to buzz-worthy events, like a silly sock or crazy hat day at school, as a way to remind kids to bring in a food item.

This month’s extraordinarily large collection came about after a challenge was made to other grades by the kindergarten class.

The youngest students already were collecting 100 food items to celebrate their 100th day of school. It’s a pretty big deal at the school, Ellis said.

“They do a lot of counting activities with the cans,” said Ellis.

The students also challenged all the other grades to collect 100 food items.

The result: Every grade at the school collected least 100 items, and one class gathered 150, said Ellis. The project helps to instill in students a “sense of giving back” to the community.

“It’s a really good thing to have kids recognize that there are people who are needier than them,” said Ellis, “that they can make a difference no matter how small they are.”

The students at Lawrence have really embraced that message, Ellis said.

Over the years, Ellis has communicated with Kathleen Kelly and Charles Mitchell from Amazing Grace Food Pantry run by St. Vincent DePaul, she said. Kelly told Ellis that her students had cumulatively contributed more than any other group in the region, Ellis said.

“We’ve had someone from Amazing Grace talk to the kids, to let them know what it’s all about,” said Ellis. “A lot of kids don’t have any idea what the food pantry is, or that it exists.”

“We tell them, ‘sometimes people run out of money, and food pantries help. They just give the food away,’” Ellis said.

Each year, Amazing Grace sends the school a letter to share their total donation. Lawrence School typically donates a couple thousand pounds, Ellis said.

The staff also donate about $3,000 annually to area nonprofits — like the Oddfellow Theater, YMCA Strong Kids and Warm the Kids — by raising money through $3 dress-down days on Fridays.

“Every time we get $100 we send it to local organizations,” she added.